Brands are evolving. Experiential Marketing allow consumers to engage with brands in a true and meaningful way. Rather than being passive receivers of messages, experiential marketers trust that the customers should be actively involved in the experience and developed a relationship with the brand. Additionaly, what makes this one of the best  marketing strategies is shares from other influencers with high authority over a particular niche in a target market.

It’s all about the experience these days: attendee experience, speaker experience, user experience, and especially experiential marketing. Experiences create connections and connections bring people back, making your event super successful. Experiential marketing focuses on creating an experience for the participant, which then, in turn, evokes an emotion or reaction that is memorable for them. Here are few lively examples of Experiential Marketing which excite the ideas of consumers to a greater extent.

• THE COCO COLA HUG MACHINE dispenses free coke to the cola lovers – an idea to spread some happiness around.

• NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC wanted to surprise the mall visitors with “Augmented Reality”- an immersed experience of nature and wildlife. It virtually offers a chance to step into the world of National Geographic.

• ASICS a leading sports shoe manufacturer created a “video wall” which allowed subway passerby to get in position and then see how they fared racing alongside the marathon champion

• Playing Pong With Smart Electric Drive – The SMART FORTWO ELECTRIC DRIVE has surprisingly powerful acceleration. Epecially over the first metres. We prove this with a spectacular Test-Drive Event. The first Computer game, where cars are used as controllers. So, everyone can experience acceleration of the THE E-SMART for themselves.

• LIVE ANGRY BIRDS – BY T-MOBILE

• UNLOCK THE 007 IN YOU – COCO COLA

• FOR THE LAUNCH OF SKYFALL 007 – We gave away exclusive tickets

• SPRITE SHOWER MACHINE – This idea excited the dehydrated beach goers.

The ‘Experience Brands’ are converting their consumers from shoppers to brand evangelists by inviting and joining their fans in co-creating and sharing in the brand’s evolution, innovation and content produced. Brands are actively trying to make end consumers participate in their brand narratives, which they can believe, engage and share. It is exciting to see how ‘Try Before You Fly’ campaign of Thomas Cook gave a range of immersive experiences to users like a virtual helicopter tour of New York. The campaign resulted in a 40% ROI and a 190% increase in New York travel revenue for the agency.

The ‘Coke AR with Diljit Dosanjh’ campaign invited youngsters and coke lovers to click a fun picture with Diljit and share their moment of happiness with Diljit on social media network generating several thousands of impressions. The ‘Volvo Reality’, the world’s first virtual reality test drive, enabled users to drive the Volvo XC90 experience in Vancouver landscape. Volvo reported reaching 238 million media impressions with this campaign. Experiential marketing is successful only if we strategise beyond physical activation.

Now, building smarter exhibits and creating content are not alone enough. Brands are using insights from exhibits and tapping social media trends to build future interactions with prospective customers. Experiential marketing builds brand advocacy. It drives user generated content through personalised interaction which results in strengthened brand relationships and increased customer loyalty. This gives a long-term strategic approach to gaining and maintaining market share. Sometimes, it is even the case of a product being superior to its competitors with innovative features that can only be communicated through experience.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA EXPOSURE

Experiential marketing is “shareable”. People like to share their experiences on social media, and that includes their experiences with brands. As a result, your brand gains free social media exposure. The posts can also be further shared by other users. It’s where experiential and social media marketing meet.

Example:

In 2015, Sprite (a Coca Cola entity) created an outdoor shower resembling a giant soda dispenser and placed them at beaches and other locations. A search of the #spriteshower hashtag on Instagram shows just how much social media users loved it.

4. ALLOWING CONSUMERS TO EXPERIENCE YOUR BRAND AND PRODUCT

You can only learn so much about a brand by interacting with it online. Experiential marketing allows consumers to literally experience your brand, creating an intimate, immersive relationship. Because it appeals to almost all of the senses, it resonates well with people. It’s a whole different way of getting to know a brand that digital marketing cannot emulate. If your experiential marketing campaign includes your products, even better. When it comes to the buyer’s journey, there’s nothing like trying out a product in person. It’s the best way for consumers to truly know if a product suits their needs before making a purchase decision. In fact, according to a survey by Event Track, 65% of consumers say experiential marketing helps them have a better understanding of a product or service.

Example:

Lean Cuisine’s highly successful #WeighThis campaign featured a wall of scales in New York’s Grand Central Station. The scales weren’t normal scales, however, and instead allowed women to write their accomplishments on them. The campaign allowed women to experience the Lean Cuisine brand as feelings of positivity and empowerment rather than words.

5. MEMORABILITY

You want people to remember your brand so they’ll come back to it in the future. Fortunately, experiential marketing is highly memorable. It’s a nontraditional form of marketing that consumers don’t experience in their everyday lives, so it has a lasting impact on them. What’s more, if it was a memorable campaign that the consumer enjoyed, he or she is likely to tell others about the experience in the future.

Example:

When the Simpsons Movie came out in 2007, 20th Century Fox transformed a dozen 7-Eleven stores into real-life Kwik-E-Mart convenience stores like the ones in the cartoon. Now that is a memorable experience that gets people talking.

Experiential marketing is a marketing technique that creates experiences between brands and consumers. Experiential campaigns use an activation (for example product sampling, immersive experiences, stunts, events, etc.) to bring brands to life and interact directly with the target audience. These campaigns are from brands in various sectors from countries spanning the globe. And while each campaign was different, the approach and strategies that were used often fit into at least one of the following five categories:

1. It was surprising or terrifying. Whether it’s an invisible walkway or a demon crawling out of a TV, if it was shocking, it got a lot of attention from our readers. Raw emotion is great click bait.

2. It was clever and creative. A human claw machine? Why didn’t we think of that! A simple, well-executed idea is always a winner. And a great idea is a great idea, it does not need a heap of fuss to ‘bring it to life’.

3. It served a need. Thirsty on a beach? Here’s a free can of Coke … with a catch. Don’t ever underestimate consumer need-states when marketing a brand.

4. It used technology in a creative way. Face swapping? Projection mapping? The more high-tech, the better! There’s a world of ‘early adopters’ out there us marketers now need to satisfy.

5. It was weird. We still don’t know what the KFC painting is about – but for some reason, we’re into it.

MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

1) COCO COLA CAMPAIGN EXCITES DEHYDRATED BEACHGOERS :

Sun seekers in Brazil were treated to free cans of Coke – after demolishing a giant ice block… In terms of refreshment it’s hard to beat an ice-cold Coke on a sunny day (even if you have to put a bit of muscle into getting it

2) IKEA’S FURNISHED CLIMBING WALL:

France make the climb as IKEA launched their 30th store and celebrated by constructing a showroom styled climbing wall. A simple stunt to activate,  but visually effective.

3) NETFLIX TARGETS MILLENNIALS WITH EXPERIENTIAL ADS:

This experiential campaign from Netflix invites people to swap faces with characters from their favourite shows.

4) BMW’S EXPERIENTIAL CAMPAIGN USES IMPRESSIVE PROJECTION MAPPING:

BMW uses ground-breaking projection mapping technology to target consumers in Munich, Seoul, Brussels and Paris to promote its 7-series model.